HUNTING AND THE VICE PRESIDENT

________(2006) THE ECONOMIST/ 2/18/ 34

The vice president is not alone in hunting. There are 13 million who shoot. Of all the post industrial democracies, Americans hunt the most. However, the activity is slowing down. In the last decade, quail hunting is off by 29% and the rest of hunting by 7%. Most fish.

These appear to be the reasons that Americans hunt less.

1) Younger suburbanites and urbans choose other activities.

2) Each year, land that is used for hunting diminishes. Every year 1.5 million acres are lost of wild life habitat.

3) Land used for hunting goes into suburban sprawl and related development.

4.) Other wild life habitat is privatized so that most others who enjoy hunting find it harder to hunt because the privatization leaves land to the more wealthy. In Texas, there are roughly 600 private shooting lands. Blue collars and others can not afford to hunt on the land or are they invited to do so.

5) Hunting has become extremely costly. Hunting lands for the wealthy are packed with birds to shoot. There are shooting lands that have dugouts and other places for refrigerators and the like to please the hunters. The vice president was on such a farm.